alexandraerin | Spring Break-Ish

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Spring Break-Ish

Folks, there has been and is going to continue to be updates for everything this week, but I've just realized it's Thursday (I mean that literally... I just checked the computer's clock to see if it was Tuesday or Wednesday) and I'm not going to hit the planned number of updates for the week. I should have been able to see this in advance and said so: my roommate's off work this week, my insomnia was in full force coming out of the weekend and I haven't been able to catch up on sleep by crashing during the day like I did last week because they've been working on the parking lot right outside and we've had painters in to clean up the results of the bathroom renovation and people in the hall... basically, it's spring cleaning time for the apartment complex.

Basically, I am so bone-tired mentally and physically but I can't sleep, for internal and external reasons. I should have declared this a vacation week and just tried to relax through it as best as I could. Gah. I said at some point (last summer, I think) that I'd do that once a quarter. I don't think I've ever managed to hold myself to it except semi-retroactively.

The writing I have done I think has turned out surprisingly pretty good, so I'm not going to take today and tomorrow off. My goal for the week is just to get as much as writing done as I can, make sure every story is represented since they've all got sponsors and people rooting for them, and then get my sleep sorted out on the weekend.

Melatonin has been suggested to me... as I recall, when I tried it before I didn't enjoy the side effects the next day, but I think if I take it Friday and Saturday night to ensure a night's sleep, that might work since what it's supposed to do is reset the circadian cycle. With that done, there's no reason why next week can't be like last week but without the updates drifting into Saturday.

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i just enjoy the updates. keep 'em coming!
(in short, don't stress so much about the schedule. it's great if it's there for your sake, but I'm satisfied so long as you get something up every day)

I hear you on the melatonin. It's the only thing I've ever consumed - including alcohol - that has given me a hangover the next day, and essentially rendered me nonfunctional.

Have you tried a fizzing calcium magnesium supplement, combined with something like chamomile tea? (For personal reasons, I find the Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Tea with a shot of honey the perfect "chaser", but it has an almost Pavlovean sleepy response for me. I've heard a lot of good things about their Sleepytime with Valerian (http://www.celestialseasonings.com/products/detail.html/wellness-teas/sleepytime-extra), though, and generally see it in my drug store herbs and vitamins isle.) Making sure you get enough B-vitamins daily also really helps; a lot of insomnia is caused, at least in part, by vitamin deficiencies.

Chamomile tea generally makes me drowsy without ensuring sleep, I'll have to look into the calcium magnesium supplement... I've never heard of that.

I've had the best luck locally finding it at Rite Aid, although if you have health food stores, they'll almost certainly have it. The fizzing calmag was recommended by a friend with long experience in insomnia - the problem with a lot of sleep aids is that they only treat falling asleep, or staying asleep. For people with complex insomnia (which from the bits you've said, sounds like you have; both a problem falling asleep and staying asleep), it's necessary to find something that knocks you out, and then something else that keeps you out. For me, calmag + camomile is the right combination (well, at least sometimes - other times I'm just screwed, and take the time to listen to Stephen Fry read me Harry Potter, or somesuch).

Anyhow, the whole point before I went off on my own sleep deprived semi tangent, is that you want to make sure you find the fizzing powdered stuff. Because of its form, it's absorbed immediately into your system, as opposed to pill form, which obviously takes longer. You'll want to make sure you mix it with very hot water (so it all dissolves), and then mask the bitter taste with something citrus-y. (I like tangerine OJ for it, but mileage varies.)

Luck! Chronic insomnia is one of the most draining things.

These are actually good teas too, the sleepytime with valerian is especially flavorful.

Melatonin is okay, but I still recommend a hearty dose of spiced rum.

Alcohol in anything less than make-me-sick quantities tends to get my creativity flowing to the same degree it makes me lethargic, which pits my brain against itself in a tournament known as Mortal Kombat.

I'm going to get you a glogg recipe. It's my official "puts you out like a light" version, filled with fun exotic chemicals!m (including esthers)
As in drinking one cup of the stuff in the middle of the day puts you out for more than an hour...
It's some seriously crazy shit.
we made it for cough medicine, if you can believe it...

I used dried sour cherries (yum!), and there's no need to teabag everything (they're tasty to eat too, but you'll want to pull the orange peels out)
http://www.drinksplanet.com/glogg-recipe-something-special-for-this-year-132.html

And you will want to light the brandysugar on fire.

Oooooo that looks goooooood

tasty cough syrup.
good for guests who want to stay up all night, too (if, you find that rather inconvenient)

Melatonin doesn't reset your circadian rhythm, it stabilizes it. In order for it to work you need to take it on a regular basis, and it's going to take a week or two for it to start working. You can't just take it on the weekend and expect it to fix your schedule for the rest of the week.

Well, then, that's off the table. The side effects start working immediately and there's no way I can function during the week with them.

Generally Melatonin dosage is supposed to be lower than the pills they sell at the store. You'll want to halve or quarter them. And you need to take them when you intend to have eight to ten hours of dark sleep. And be okay with dreaming... It won't help stress-induced insomnia at all, just shift-induced or sleep-deprivation induced.

So yeah, it's totally plausible it didn't help you. Doesn't help me, either, but it helps my spouse dream - but she doesn't like staying asleep that long.

Other things you can try are valium root or chamomile flower tea; they need to be taken about fifteen minutes before you try to sleep, and you should try for a good hour when you do. Over the counter there's Diphenhydramine (in Tylenol PM, Benedryl; take a half-dose, follow instructions above) and Dimenhydrinate (Dramamine), which reduces the inner-ear sensation and make one less restless (it's dangerous to double-dose, however, whereas the others listed here are not).

I hope this helps! Mostly we use the shot-of-alcohol-in-chamomile-and-milk and a pillow over the eyes to doze off. Oh, and a fan on medium to drown out other noise and make the air move in the room.

I know you're on a tight budget, but have you seen a doctor about this? It seems that you aren't having much luck in trying to deal with it on your own.

I've been to a doctor about my insomnia, and unless you're willing to take sleeping pills, (i'm not, because they only mask the problem) the most they can do is tell you to cut caffine after 5:00 pm, make your bed a sleep only space, (the doctor assumed i wasn't sexually active) and to get up and read for half an hour if you can't fall asleep.

None of these things work for this particular bibliophile. I cut all caffine, didn't effect it one way or another.

In fact the one thing my doctor told me to stop, was the only thing that worked even occasionally, working out just before bed.

That's pretty much where I am, and I've watched my mother go through the prescription sleeping pills and their side effects. I've cut caffeine intake down to literally nothing before and all that did was take away one tool for helping me manage my alertness when I'm awake.

(Get up and read for half an hour. If I get up and pick up a book, I'm not going back down.)

The "problem", as I see it, is that my brain is too active. I don't have an off-switch for that. I can take lavendar baths and drink chamomile tea (or take OTC sleep aids) and they make me feel all relaxed and then go lie down, and I'll start to feel drowsy, but there's my brain, still goin'-goin'-goin' and it keeps me awake straight through the drowse and right until the point when the body decides "Oh, guess we're not going to sleep after all."

As far as I can tell, I've always been that way. My parents tell me when I was a baby, they used to go in and check on me when they thought I was asleep and I'd just be lying there, looking at the ceiling. Not playing and not fussing. Just lying there.

I think the best thing I can do is embrace it, be awake when I'm awake and accept that there are going to be good times and bad times.

Other tricks:
try focusing on not thinking... I know it's a zen thing, but just picture yourself in a black void, just lying there. not thinking, just a peace.

also, try muscle relaxation... aggressively relaxing each muscle group (by letting your mind "heat" them until they are fully relaxed). It's something to concentrate on, which might help.

even if you are sexually active, you can still make the bed a sleep only (or cuddle only) place.
I've found i'm far less prone to waking up with my head down at the other end of the bed with a partner sleeping beside me.

I don't know about your particular situation but what has helped me to sleep better has been to set a schedule and stick to it.
I get up at about the same time everyday, 7 - 8 am, I eat regular meals at regular times, especially dinner, eating right before bed will make it harder to get a decent nights sleep; it can also make you gain weight in case you need extra incentive :), also no caffeine in the evenings. Then get to bed at a decent time even if you aren't particularly tired, its easy to start going to bed later and later and before you know it you aren't going to bed at all.
Besides that try exercising in the afternoon, you don't burn off much energy sitting in front of a computer all day, its amazing how much it will wear you out just to go out for a few hours, or take a walk around the block.
Its also important to deal take some time to relax during the day, don't save your worrying for right before bed, make bedtime a time to just relax, when you get into bed let everything go until tomorrow, this takes some practice but no matter how bad a day I have I try to get into bed and just breath for a while and then I drift off.

Making and KEEPING a schedule should help you with your insomnia and should help you to be less stressed in general.

St Johns Wort tea always works for me - tastes awful, but it switches my brain off like a lightswitch!

This one can have serious side effects for people with many types of mood and sleep disorders. So if you have a contrary or any non-positive reaction to using it, stop. ^-^ In other words, if it does nothing, don't use it.

According to my neurologist, St John's Wort's chemical effect is the same as a SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor). It is less potent than something like Zoloft (SSRI prescribed for depression, among other things), but it's over-the-counter herbal, which means it is also less regulated.

So, it can have all the side effects you might see in an SSRI anti-depressant.

For the record, this came up with my neurologist because SSRIs often trigger severe migraines in people prone to them. He was *very* annoyed my therapist suggested St John's Wort after I had trouble with other prescriptions due to migraines.

Funnily enough, I only drink St Johns Wort tea as a means of being able to get to sleep when I *have* a migraine :P

I was given to understand SJW had few side effects compared to most alternatives - photosensitivity being the only major one. In any case, in the rare occasions I use St Johns Wort, I don't use high-concentration tablets, I make a dilute tea from the flowers.

I recently had a terrible 3 month bout of insomnia. I'm just starting to get over it. I saw the doctor after I was only getting two hours of sleep every 30-36 hours.

She gave me a prescription for sleeping pills (ambien). They did nothing. I tried a different prescription (lunesta) that had worked in the past, combined with zoloft. The zoloft helped me FEEl better, but the sleeping pills, even at higher doses, still did nothing.

She also gave me a whole slew of stuff on good sleep habits, and told me to read a book called Say Goodnight to Insomnia. I ordered it off Amazon, and it should be arriving shortly. The changes in my daily habits have helped a LOT though.

I stopped drinking all regular soda, which cut a significant portion of sugar and caffeine from my diet. Caffeine can stay in your system for up to 20 hours. I started going to bed at the same time every night, following a bedtime routine. If I couldn't fall asleep, I'd get up for a period, and try again. Once I woke up, I got up no matter how much sleep I'd gotten. As soon as I woke up, or as soon as it was light out, I went outside for 30 minutes and took a walk.

I've suffered from insomnia periodically since I was 10. This was the worst it's ever been for me, and I'm still not totally over it, but it's getting better! Going to bed at the same time each night was pretty hard at first. I was used to going to bed when I felt tired, sometime between 11pm-3am, sleeping in, and taking naps during the day. That's all pretty counterproductive to getting a good nights sleep. You might want to give it a shot ^.^

I've had insomnia my entire life and, to be honest, it blows like a humpback whale. It's worse lately and I've pretty much linked it to high stress situations like I am in currently. Have four papers due this week (two due Tuesday, two due Wednesday) and three finals, all of which require studying.

Honestly, the only thing I find helps me go to bed when I can actually fit it in is Excedrin PM. I have chronic headaches/migraines as well but if I take two of those, I can pretty much doze off with only minor hallucinations beforehand.

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Spring Break-Ish

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